Poll shows most Americans have faith in Obama fixing the economy - but later rather than sooner

Inauguration Countdown

January 18, 2009|By Adam Nagourney and Marjorie Connelly, The New York Times

President-elect Barack Obama is riding a powerful wave of optimism into the White House, with Americans confident he can turn the economy around but prepared to give him years to deal with the problems he faces starting Tuesday, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

While hopes for the new president are extraordinarily high, the poll found, expectations for what Obama will actually be able to accomplish appear to have been tempered by the scale of the problems at home and abroad.

The findings suggest that Obama has achieved some success with his effort -- which began with his victory speech in Chicago in November -- to gird Americans for a slow economic recovery and difficult years ahead after a campaign that generated striking enthusiasm and high hopes for change.

Most Americans said they did not expect real progress in improving the economy, reforming the health-care system or ending the war in Iraq -- three of the central promises of Obama's campaign -- for at least two years. The poll found two-thirds of respondents think the recession will last two years or longer.

As the nation prepares for a transfer of power and the inauguration of its 44th president, Obama's stature with the American public stands in sharp contrast with that of President Bush.

Bush is leaving office with just 22 percent of Americans offering a favorable view of how he handled the eight years of his presidency, a record low, and firmly identified with the economic crisis Obama is inheriting. More than 80 percent of respondents said the nation is in worse shape today than it was five years ago.

By contrast, 79 percent were optimistic about the next four years under Obama, a level of good will for a new chief executive that exceeds that measured for any of the past five incoming presidents.

"Obama is not a miracle worker, but I am very optimistic, I really am," Phyllis Harden, 63, an independent from Easley, S.C., who voted for him, said in an interview after participating in the poll. Harden added: "It's going to take a couple of years at least to improve the economy."

And politically, Obama enjoys a strong foundation of support as he enters what is sure to be a tough and challenging period, working with Congress to swiftly pass a huge and complicated economic package.